What An Eight Years!
- Written by Cemil Ozyurt
- Published in TOA Authors
By Cemil Ozyurt - cemil{at}turkofamerica.com
When we decided to publish the first Turkish American business magazine eight years ago, nobody believed that we would survive ever for three or four issues. Despite the doubters, the issues have followed each other and almost eight years have passed. When I think about what we have done in eight years, I am really proud of our team and their work.
When we decided to publish the first Turkish American business magazine eight years ago, nobody believed that we would survive ever for three or four issues. Despite the doubters, the issues have followed each other and almost eight years have passed. When I think about what we have done in eight years, I am really proud of our team and their work.
TURKOFAMERICA has connected two countries with its unique source. We have reached people who had never been contacted before to cover their stories, have traveled over 200,000 miles in the U.S. and overseas, and have helped the voice of Turkish business people to be heard around the world.
When we started to publish the magazine, our main target was to serve as a bridge between the U.S. and Turkey to develop business relations. Now I have seen that we have accomplished many important things, but we still have a long way to go.
One of the most important achievements of TURKOFAMERICA is helping New York State to open a trade office in Istanbul in 2010 for Turkish businessmen who want to invest in New York State.
The other important development of the magazine is that for the last two years we have distributed the magazine on Delta Airlines business class Istanbul-New York flights. We are one of very rare ethnic publications which have such an agreement with one of the Fortune 500 companies.
To celebrate our anniversary, we organized a U.S. concert tour for one of the most popular Turkish pop singers, the Queen of Turkish pop music, Sezen Aksu. I believe that it will be remembered for a very long time and it will be a very special night for her fans.
In addition to our teamwork, having unique content and reaching very niche markets are our key factors for success. In this period, we had many competitors. Each of them helped us to improve our quality and service but unfortunately none of them have survived.
One of our important differences as a business publication is that we have introduced many nationally successful Turkish-American businessmen and professionals to the American public for the first time. TURKOFAMERICA has become a needed source for the Turkish media as well. They have reached many sources through the magazine.
As journalists, we have interviewed many important figures, such as the President, Prime Minister, and many State Ministers of Turkey, U.S. Congressmen and mayors of famous cities, trade association executives, community leaders, activists, actresses, and academicians. We delivered their message to the Turkish-American public and the business community.
Even though we heard many times from different people that is was impossible to survive in the publishing business as a ethnic publication in the U.S., the TURKOFAMERICA team has carried out the miracle.
According to the U.S Dept. of Commerce and the Census Bureau, seven out of 10 new employer firms survive at least 2 years, half at least 5 years, a third at least 10 years, and a quarter stay in business 15 years or more. TURKOFAMERICA is running toward its 10th year and I hope it will be staying in the publishing business as long as Turkish- Americans live in the United States. I would like to thank all of our advertisers, subscribers, readers, contributors, editors, writers, and photographers. We couldn’t have done anything without your support. Happy eighth anniversary.
Last modified onSaturday, 06 May 2017 10:07
